The present invention relates to a process of making a picture frame and especially to a process of making a clear polymer picture frame having a decorative border around a center window for mounting a photo or the like. This application is a Continuation-in-Part of my prior U.S. Patent Application for Process for Making a Picture Frame, Ser. No. 09/538,672, filed: Mar. 30, 2000.
In the past, it has been common to make a wide variety of picture frames. A typical picture frame is formed having an edge molding having a rectangular shape with mitered corners and having a sheet of transparent glass or plastic, such as an acrylic sheet, mounted under an edge lip on the molding. A mat is positioned under the transparent sheet of glass having a cutout center portion for mounting artwork. Usually a non-porous backing and a stiff backing are positioned behind the artwork within the frame molding. The glass, mat, artwork, and backing can be held in place within the molding using small nails or the like to hold the framed artwork together. A hanger is typically added to the frame which may consist of screw eyes on two sides of the edge molding connected by a hanging wire.
The prior art also includes the use of picture frames made out of acrylic sheets which have had screen printed images on one side of the acrylic sheet. The image is printed to form a border having a transparent center portion where the print can be mounted. This becomes very labor intensive because printing each of the colors in the design requires that the acrylic sheet be passed through the press another time. Designs can also be screen printed onto an acrylic sheet. The screen printing does not produce the fine details in the print and to obtain finer detail requires much more expensive screen printing which still does not produce the fine details produced in off-set printing. This procedure can be utilized for printing solid borders onto an acrylic sheet having a transparent center portion for mounting a picture adjacent thereto for viewing from the other side of the sheet. Decorative frames can also be made using an acrylic sheet having border artwork offset printed onto a piece of paper which is then die cut to the shaped specifications. The die cut printed paper is slid into a clear acrylic frame. This tends to look cheap and unappealing to customers and, in addition, custom dies for custom shapes increases the cost of making the plastic picture frame. In any process, it is also desirable to mount a frame easel or hanger on the back of the acrylic picture frame in order to support the picture frame on a desk or to hang the picture frame on a wall or surface.
The present process is for making a laminated acrylic picture frame having a decorative and photo border which can be made in any desired shape. The high quality and fine print detail printed on a transparent polymer sheet are laminated onto an acrylic frame without the use of expensive die charges and in a manner that small runs are economically feasible while also allowing fast and large production runs.
A process for making a picture frame includes the step of printing border art and registration marks on a piece of transparent sheet material, such as vinyl or polycarbonate plastic sheet material, while leaving a center window portion transparent. Then making a computer laser cut path for the printed transparent sheet material to mark the outside path of the border art for cutting along the edge thereof and then coating an adhesive onto the transparent sheet material, to cover the printed artwork and transparent center window. The process includes attaching the transparent sheet material having the printed border surrounding a transparent center window onto a transparent polymer picture frame member, cutting the transparent sheet of material along the computer cutout path for the outer edge of the border art to form an outer border on the transparent material and transparent picture frame member. The transparent polymer sheet is heated and folded to form a backing for the picture frame. The process can also utilize a coating of ultraviolet activated adhesive applied over the printed transparent sheet, then passing the polymer sheet having the printed border through a pair of rollers for removing air bubbles and then directing ultraviolet light through the polymer sheet onto the adhesive to activate the adhesive. The process can also include attaching a frame easel or support to the back of the picture frame.